Dartmouth day care: Where are the adults?

EDITORIALApril 26. 2013 12:43AMWe know that Dartmouth College is one of America's elite institutions of higher education, and not a day care center. Whether the faculty, staff and students know this is unclear.

Last Friday, Dartmouth held an event to welcome recently accepted students. It was crashed by a few protesters who shouted about the usual things protesters shout about: racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. The protesters had neither the cleverness nor the maturity to think of a more appropriate or more interesting way to focus attention on their complaints. Alas, the administration had neither the cleverness nor the maturity to punish them for this disruption.

Others took on that responsibility in an appallingly irresponsible way. According to the administration, someone used an online forum to threaten the protesters and make sexist, racist and homophobic comments. The administration called a faculty meeting, and the faculty voted, incredibly, to cancel Wednesday classes. In their place, the college offered the customary feel-good kumbayism: "teach-ins," a community gathering and a discussion led by a "social justice and diversity consultant," according to CNN. Imagine the social harmony if the police reacted this way to threats of violence.

Speaking of the police, the Dartmouth administration said the threats would be handled in-house, without involving law enforcement. So much for the idea that the online comments were a genuine threat to anyone. If they were, surely the police would be called. If not, then there was no reason to cancel classes.